First U.S. Measles Death in a Decade, Courtesy of Your Neighborhood Anti-Vaxxers

Via Forbes:

For the first time since 2003, a person has died from measles in the U.S. A woman in Clallam County in Washington died from pneumonia caused by measles, according to the Washington State Department of Health.

“This should have been a preventable death, and I think her death is a tragedy,” said Dr. Mark Schleiss, professor of pediatrics and director of the Division of Infectious Diseases and Immunology at the University of Minnesota. “Measles is a disease we know we can control with effective immunizations. For this to happen is really unfortunate and unnecessary.”

The fact that the woman’s death occurred in Washington is unfortunately unsurprising, however, Schleiss noted.

“We know that Washington state is a state with one of the highest percentages of religious and philosophical exemptions for vaccines in the country,” he said. “It seems a reasonable conclusion that this death occurred because of inadequate immunization levels, but more epidemiological investigation will have to take place to find out.”

So there you have it. When the population has a higher number of “exemptions”–anti-vaxxers–it follows that the rest of the people are at greater risk. While it’s reflexive for many to blame religion for almost anything, many of the “philosophical” exemptions occur in very liberal clusters.

As has been pointed out, but still needs to be hammered home, it isn’t surprising to see people who are devout members of the Church of Climate Change Hysteria wholeheartedly subscribing to celebrity-driven “science” about vaccinations. They’ve been selling the climate hysteria through celebrities for years, it really isn’t a leap for them to believe that one of their comrades in carbon fighting arms is an expert in the causes of autism.

These are the people who use nets rather than chemicals to combat malaria, so human casualties as a result of a misbegotten hippie narrative are nothing new to them.